“The design was already been out to tender, being built without electrical buses, as being part of the original project scope,” Jesse Banford, the director for facility infrastructure and delivery with the City of Edmonton, told reporters. “So now we’re including that scope of work. So the $10 million is to add this into this part of the scope of work.”

Eddie Robar, the branch manager for Edmonton Transit, said the floor had to be reinforced because of what’s below.

“In this specific garage, there’s a parking garage underneath the floor where the buses are. So if you can imagine, upgrading the infrastructure just to support the floor with [a] garage underneath, it’s not like having it on a pure slab.”

Watch below: In April 2018, Albert Delitala filed this report about how new electric buses could soon be buzzing along Edmonton streets.

Out on Edmonton’s main streets, the design of the road base is sufficiently capable of handling the heavier buses.

Executive committee was told that future transit upgrades for when more buses are ordered won’t come with the $10-million surprise.

“[We’re] learning from this,” Laughlin said. “It’s not just a plug, it’s the weight of the bus in comparison to a diesel bus. [It’s] the structural requirements, the electrical requirements — those sorts of things — that cause the ancilliary infrastructure improvements to happen.”

Extra electrical work, including a second generator, information technology systems and other upgrades, are also part of the $10-million cost.